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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
r/v373^ — 

Shell' .T^f/f 7 

UNITED STATES OF AaTERK A. 



ROCK OF AGES. 



AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY. 



DESIGNS BY MISS L. B. HUMPHREY. 



Engraved by John Andrew and Son. 




BOSTON: 

LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. 

NEW YORK: 

CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM. 

1879. 






Copyright. 

1878. 

By lee and SHEPARD. 



A U risrhts reserved. 



ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 
CAMBRIDGE. 



Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in Thee ! 

Let the water and the blood. 

From Thy riven side which flowed, 

Be of sin the double cure, 

Cleanse me from its guilt and power. 

Not the labors of my hands 
Can fulfil Thy law's demands ; 
Could my zeal no respite know, 
Could my tears for ever flow. 
All for sin could not atone ; 
Thou must save, and Thou alone. 

Nothing in my hand I bring : 
Simply to Thy Cross I cling ; 
Naked, come to Thee for dress ; 
Helpless, look to Thee for grace ; 
Foul, I to the Fountain fly ; 
Wash me. Saviour, or I die ! 

While I draw this fleeting breath. 
When my eyestrings break in death. 
When I soar through tracts unknown. 
See Thee on Thy judgment-throne ; 
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
I-et me hide myself in Thee ! 



Augustus Montague Toplady was born at Farnham, 
Surrey, England, in 1740. His father fell at the battle of 
Carthagena, and he was brought up in charge of an exem- 
plary and pious mother. He was educated at Westminster 
school. 

At the age of sixteen Toplady chanced to go into a barn 
at an obscure place, called Codymain, Ireland, to hear an 
illiterate layman preach. The sermon made upon him an 
unexpected impression and led to his immediate conver- 
sion. 

He became a minister of the Church of England, and 
preached and wrote with self-consuming zeal. 

In the year 1775 his health began to fail. His physician 
commanded him to go to London, where he became pastor 
of the French Calvinist Reformed Church. 

In the year of his settlement in London he published in 
the Gospel Afagazitie {March, 1776) an article entitled "Ques- 
tions and Answers Relative to the National Debt," in which 
he adverts to the debt of sin, and shows how multitudinous 
are the sins of mankind. By numerical calculations he 
exhibits the enormity of the debt of the redeemed soul, 
which Christ has cancelled, and impresses the reader with 
the transcendent love and value of Christ's atonement. 
With these thoughts glowing like a vision in his mind, he 
wrote the hymn beginning, " Rock of Ages, cleft for me." 
He died in 1778. 




(!)(K|i of cl^ges, cleft for mt, 
^ct mc liidc mijsclf in ©hcc! 




^QOCK of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in Thee ! 

> 

Let the water and the blood, 
From Thy riven side which flowed, 
Be of sin the double cure, 
Cleanse me from its guilt and power. 




/or tljcg bmnk of tl)at fspuitual rock tliat follotocD 
tl)cm ; anil tl)at rock roas (illjrisit. 

1 Cor. X. 4. 




.OT the labors of my hands 
Ian fulfil Thy law's demands ; 
!!ould my zeal no respite know, 
Could my tears for ever flow, 
All for sin could not atone ; 
Thou must save, and Thou alone. 




I^e tl)Ott mg strong rock, tor an l)Ouse of iicfcncc to 
siane me. 



Psalms xxxi. 2. 




Nothing in my hand I bring ; 
Simply to Thy Cross I cling ; 




%ta.'is mc to {\)t rock tljat tjs Ijigljcr tl)an I. 

Psalms Ixi. 2. 



IaKED, come to Thee for dress; 
Helpless, look to Thee 
for orrace : 




Foul, I to the Fountain fly ; 

Wash me. Saviour, or I die ! ^^ 




^S tl)c gl)ai)otD of a great rock in a rocarji lanb. 

Isaiah xxxii. 2. 



HILE I draw this 




fleeting breath, 
When my eyestrings 

break in death, 
When I soar through 

tracts unknown. 



See Thee on Thy judgment-throne ; 
Rock of Ages, cleft for me. 
Let me hide myself in Thee! 




Hpon tl)b rock I roill builti mg diurcl). 

Matt. xvi. i8. 



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